American Cinematographer - January 2001 - 82

Poison Pen
tion time figuring out an appropriate
palette for the film. If the foremost
challenge was how to walk the line

between

a

historical and modern

then color

tone,

was one

of the key

solutions. At the outset, the filmmak¬
ers decided to avoid the
sepia hue
that characterizes

many period
They knew they wanted a
desaturated look, but they didn't
so

films.

want to

reduce the colors in process¬

ing. The cinematographer says he did
not want to use a bleach-bypass or
similar silver-retention process like
ENR because those techinques
would

create a

he doesn't like

level of

on

contrast

that

actors' faces, and he

knew there would be

a

lot of close-

in the film. Additionally, he

ups

didn't like the fact that the studio

Above: The

randy
marquis entices
the virginal
Madeleine with
lascivious

whispers. Below:
Director Philip
Kaufman confers
with Winslet and
Rush in the
Charenton set.

designed a curved corridor leading to
occupied by the marquis.
This becomes the path of temptation
for
a
virginal chambermaid,
Madeleine (Kate Winslet), who helps
the marquis (Geoffrey Rush) publish
his illicit works by smuggling his
manuscripts out with the laundry.
the cell

"We wanted the

hallways to have real
ceilings, and we wanted everything to
be round," Staffers says. "The models
and the drawings of the set gave me
ideas about where to add little places
to hide my lights. [The hallways]
were the hardest areas to
light."
Staffers also spent preproduc¬

might do the process only on the
film's "show prints" (those that go to
major cities).
In sifting through stacks of
paintings, the filmmakers hit upon
a solution. "I noticed a
green that
we
really loved," Staffers recalls.
"Mainly it's in the varnish that has
colored

over

time." This color

was

particularly noticeable in the paint¬
ings of Louis Leopold Boilly, as well
as

in

of Chardin's still lifes.

some

"The fruit has different colors, but
this green [hue over the painting]
somehow takes the hard color out
of it," he

explains. "It suggests a
period feeling to me. But at the
same

time, modern commercials

often have a cyan tone, and
were
talking about not making
Quills a 'real' period movie, but
rather as contemporary as possible, I
went that way." In the end, he settled
on a palette of white, warm tones and
very
since

green.

Stoffers chose

to

work exclu¬

sively with Kodak Vision 500T
5279 stock for interiors and exteri¬
ors.

"I love

one

stock, if possible," he says. "The

to

shoot

everything

500 ASA EXR 5298 is

a

on

beautiful

stock, but it's

polished,
Arri 535

80

January 2001

a

a bit rougher and less
bit grittier." He used an

as

his A-camera and

a



American Cinematographer - January 2001

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